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Pachter thinks it's because of the PS3, but there area also rumors that Rockstar is having problems fitting the entire game on one DVD and is waiting for MS's new compression technology to fix the issue, causing the delay.
If I had to guess, I'd think it was b/c of the PS3 though, simply because of how difficult the PS3 is to program for.
I think you'd be right. GTA IV must have more texture data, higher bit-rate audio, etc. But it is much smaller in terms of land mass compared to San Andreas which fit fine on a DVD9.
I think the PS3 version is chugging along at 20 FPS right now, maybe due to the system RAM being split up the middle.
All speculation but I do have a point when it comes to WHY they would delay it.
This will be rather long. Sorry.
If Rockstar released GTA on time for Xbox 360 but delayed the PS3 version, it would be all over but the crying for Sony this holiday, with Microsoft having GTA, Halo, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Katamari, Madden, etc. And all for a much lower price. Sony would have...um...Lair?
I agree with you on the first point — releasing GTA IV this year for the 360 and next year for the PS3 would be devastating — but I have to disagree with the rest of that paragraph. I know you’re not trying to sound like a Microsoft fanboy, and I always try to keep from sounding like a Sony fanboy. But out of the games you named, two of the major ones aren’t 360 exlusives; Madden NFL 08 and Assassin’s Creed, as far as I know, are each coming out on the same day for both systems. Madden will be out on August 14th, while Assassin’s Creed is currently set for a November 13th release — for both PS3 and 360.
Secondly, people keep underestimating the huge PS3 exclusives coming between now and the end of the year. Besides Lair, here are some other upcoming games: Warhawk (August 28th), Heavenly Sword (September 12th), and Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (October 23rd). I’m not saying that they’ll each sell as much as Halo 3 or even BioShock, but they’ll definitely sell millions of copies, and hopefully, a bunch of PS3 systems.
As to the reason for the delay, well, since there hasn’t been anything official (and I doubt there will be, ever since Bizarre Creations’ PGR4 DVD size faux pas), it’s anyone’s guess. I’m more inclined to believe that there are, in fact, compression issues with the 360 version. Think about it...a single-layer Blu-ray Disc can hold over two and a half times as much data as a dual-layer DVD. The land area in GTA IV might pale in comparison to the vastness of San Andreas, but that doesn’t mean that the game will be smaller. Graphically, this game is infinitely superior to the PS2/Xbox iterations of the GTA franchise, and all that texture and lighting data takes up space. We may never know the true explanation for the delay — it might just be that they’re not finished with the game and need more development time to do that, instead of just minor tweaking and tuning up — but that’s my two cents.
Thanks for the input Bronx. My bottom line in respect to who the culprit of the delay is, you can't blame anyone but Rockstar and their wheelin' and dealin'...
On another note, it doesn't matter how much you can fit on a blu-ray disc, it's getting it off the disc that may be the problem...DVD has higher read speeds than blu-ray making for faster loads (and noisier drives!)
And to call me a M$ fanboy is silly considering what I purchased last weekend:
Right...I remember you posted about buying a PS3 in another thread. When I said, “I know you’re not trying to sound like a Microsoft fanboy,” I didn’t want it to come off as me actually calling you a Microsoft fanboy. Fanboyism is characterized by rabid and incoherent trolling, mostly using words like “SUX” and “R0X0RZ”. You are definitely not in that boat, and I appreciate it.
Regarding your comments about load times and such: check out this GameSpot blog post. It’s quite informative — basically, it says that the speeds on a 2x Blu-ray drive (like the one in the PS3) and a 12x DVD-ROM drive (like the one in the 360) are relatively close, especially considering that the 12x DVD-ROM drive speed is a maximum that isn’t usually approached. Also, since the PS3 and 360 versions are being developed separately (as far as I’m aware), the PS3 version could be programmed to cache a few GB of data on the hard drive to bring load times down to that of the 360 version.
I really don't like either company, but I'm a console gamer at heart and love good games. Most of those good games are on 360 this holiday.
Sony can push Liar (sic) and Heavily Bored all they want, those games are mediocre at best, bad reviews are coming in by the boatloads, everything multi-platform runs better on 360 right now, and it is just a more mature platform online.
A GTA delay on PS3 could've been the last straw for Sony this holiday but Rockstar basically said "we're not gonna decide this horse race because it would affect our business strategy and we don't want to be responsible for screwing Sony"
Microsoft loses a generation changing opportunity to have one of the biggest games temporarily exclusive this holiday because Rockstar had no balls.
Then again this could all be caused by the Xbox and I'm talking out my ass. Just my opinion, R* should come out and say what the delay is about, the investors conference call yesterday avoided the issue with a "no comment".